Today is #WorldAIDSDay, a day when the world’s focus is on the fight against HIV/AIDS. There are already a number of medications on the market to help ease symptoms of HIV.According to the World Health Organization, since the HIV/AIDS epidemic began more than 30 years ago, over 70 million people have contracted HIV. No vaccine exists to […]

Pesticide use on commercially grown crops has increased dramatically even more than consumers have been led to believe. According to figures recently released by the Soil Association – the UK’s leading food and farming charity and organic certification body – show the number of chemicals on supermarket vegetables has increased up to 17 fold in the […] […]

Among the hundreds of emails and newsletters that come my way everyday, one quickly caught my attention. In it was an article that talked about companies that do animal testing, a topic I’ve been following for a while. Let me be blunt. I despise that companies do horrendously painful and inhumane testing on defenseless, innocent animals. And […]

Many of you know I was a long time resident of Northern California, a place of beauty and many natural wonders that still holds a special place in my heart. The following is an excerpt from an article I wrote that was recently published online about one of these remarkable public places and the trials and […]

Contrary to assurances by fish farming concerns, thousands of farmed Atlantic salmon have escaped into the Pacific Ocean. They escaped from a damaged net pen at a Cooke Aquaculture fish farm off Cypress Island in Washington’s Puget Sound on Saturday, This has sparked fears that the farm-raised fish could threaten wild Pacific salmon. According to the Washing […]

If you know any farmers, you know that earning a living is very difficult. Much money is spent – on equipment of all sorts, high labor costs and a myriad of other things – and the markets are volatile at best. Farmers who raise livestock – be it cattle, chickens or hogs – know that the demand from consumers for humanely raised animals is growing.

Change, however, costs money, something that’s usually in short supply for the American farmer.

With all the hoopla across the country about whether or not to pass legislation that would give the public the right to know what’s in the food we eat and about preventing carcinogenic pesticides from being used on our food crops, the idea that the U.S. Department of Agriculture would flagrantly disregard concerns of environmentalists and concerned citizens seems at odds with its public charter. Yet that’s apparently what’s happened.

It’s tough for consumers to make sense of the many food certification labels

There’s a steadily growing plethora of food certifications out there and it’s getting pretty confusing for consumers to make sense of them. And the label “natural” has become downright suspicious and meaningless.

Among the confusion, there are labels we can trust out there, including Non-GMO Verified and perhaps Certified Humane. Now it seems there’s another one that smaller farmers are embracing and that’s trustworthy.

Certified Naturally Grown (CNG), a grassroots non-profit created by a handful of farmers from New York’s Hudson Valley who were committed to organic practices, has ts own set of standards and certification process. Continue reading →

It had to happen. Finally, a request has been made by Congress that the FDA’s and USDA’s review process for genetically engineered products finally come under scrutiny by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).